Activity

@obrian-of-the-surface-world

Okay, so I finally got around to making a recording. XD We’ll see how this goes.

Moniker: @KingdomFire7

Words: (1493); Minutes: (9:49)

Recording: Through the Eye of the Needle

Text:

I shot upright, sweat beading on my forehead. My heart smashed against my ribs so loudly I could hear it. I stared into the darkness. Dark outlines of broken dressers met my eyes, and a familiar smell my nose.

“Oh— oh just a dream,” I murmured, falling back on the musty blankets. “I’m still alive— I’m still alive.”

Three seconds later I heard someone scream into my ear. I peeled my face away from the blankets and turned my eyes upward. Fav’s face met me, and it wasn’t a happy one.

“Get up, Nole! It’s morning!” he yelled.

My only answer was a moan.

That was the end of his patience. “Oh what the nebula!” he shouted. “If you want to die that’s your business.”

He turned and stalked out of the room.

“Thank God a few more minutes,” I whispered into the blankets. They smelled awful, but— familiar. This was the only home I had, and life would last a few more minutes.

Or would it?

I forced myself to stand and smacked the life back into my face. The dirty light bulb attempted to shine overhead, and I could just make out the sounds of the cars bouncing down the streets above.

I zipped up my jacket and rushed out into the main area of the basement. There the other guys were strapping on knives and stretching. Fav appeared at the bottom of the stairs.

“Jak!” he shouted.

“Yeah, man?” answered Jak, Fav’s second-in-command. He was tall, thin as a knife, with dark skin and darker hair.

“Lead the boys down Lar Street. We’re robbing the Carters’ today.”

“Ooh, boy,” said Jak, turning to the guys. “Ya hear ‘im? Carter place. We go’n’ need an awful big fork for this chicken. You boys think you’re up to it?”

We all screamed our affirmation. Jak nodded, and the guys started lining up behind him. I moved up to the back of the line. Fav spotted me.

“Heyheyhey!” he snapped, turning his sharp eyebrows on me. He pointed me out to Jak. “Leave the wimp rat behind,” he said. “If he wants to make some cash he’s gonna have to make it on his own. Come on, boys, let’s roll.”

Jak and the guys nodded and followed him up the stairway. I pulled my collar up around my face and jogged after them. Fav wasn’t about to just leave me behind: as much as I hated him, I needed his help to get my life back.

I got up to the last guy in line: my friend Rood. I grabbed his collar. “Rood!” I hissed.

“What?” He sounded annoyed.

“I need you to sneak me through.”

“Forget it!” he said, frowning. “Fav’ll figure it out, and then he’ll be after me for helping you.”

“But—”

“Forget it, Nole,” he said, mounting the next step. “You’ll find a way to get some cash on your own. See ya,” he said, and nearly fled from me to catch up with the other guys.

Get some cash on my own? I’d never make it around the police without the whole gang. Here a gang needs strength more than stealth. The police know how desperate we thieves are. They patrol the streets constantly.

I narrowed my eyes and ran up the steps. Fav was at the top, ushering Rood through the door. He saw me out of the corner of his eye and slammed the door.

“Please, Fav,” I pleaded, stopping a few steps short of his, “I need to get through. The police’ll kill me if I go out alone. Let me go with you: I’ll obey you, I swear!”

“No.” Fav glared at me, his hands in his pockets.

That was it. I knew what would happen if I didn’t get more money. My life was running out fast— I’d sold five years just last week and knew I didn’t have much left.

I whipped my knife out of my boot and slashed at Fav. He drew back, letting my knife glance against the concrete wall. By the time I was ready for the next slice, his knife was in his hand and fury in his face. He stuck me under the ribs and sent a kick to my stomach.

The world went red and I tumbled backwards down the stairs. My head struck the concrete and pink sparks lit up my vision.

“I don’t have time for idiot rebels,” I heard Fav say, his voice low and far off.

The door slammed. The clock ticked. I was alone.

I gasped a breath in and pressed my face against the cold floor, feeling my heart pump the life right out of my body.

So this is it: I’ve run out of leash, I thought. What a terrible run I’ve had.

My life played out before my half-dead eyes. Our happy family back at the farm. Dad’s crop dying. The taxes skyrocketing. Mom crying. Dad taking the bottle.

I’d been fed up with it. Poverty. Death. So I gave the city a try: pay my way to success with my very life. Yeah, selling fifty years for a million bucks turned out real well for me. I wasted my money. Wasted my life. Fav took me in.

But it was over now: too late. I’d run wrong, hung out with the wrong guys, and I was paying for it. My life was gone, and was going to the Greyfells.

***

“Get the stinkin’ nebula outta my way!” shouted a man, shoving me aside. I barely noticed. Everyone was mean here in the Greyfells. I’d been here for a week, I guessed.

The road was clogged with people, but then again it always was. The moment I got here I was walking, walking with the rest of ‘em down the road in the gloom. We all went different ways, but we were all on the same road.

I walked on.

I’d wasted my life. I was dead now. There was no way I could get a second chance. No way. No way I could return to life. My life had been death. My death was death. Life didn’t exist.

I walked on.

“Ho! Stop right there son!”

I tried to ignore the voice and keep walking, but the voice— it was— rich, deep, and kind. Like the mane of a lion, or the fur of a bear. I tilted my head up.

A few feet ahead of me and to the side stood a Man, people cussing at him and pushing past him. The Man wore a smile, and he had a thick beard and thick hair. His clothes were rough working clothes but very clean.

“Here, come over son, so we can talk,” he said.

I came over.

The Man looked me in the eyes. The life in them pierced me. “Why are you here?” He asked. His tone made lying impossible.

My eyes went to the ground. “I— I wasted my life, Sir.” The words came out in a whisper— barely audible.

“Yes.”

I winced when he said it. Life is impossible. Life is impossible, the thoughts pounded. They beat my heart down into my shoes. The cursing of the passersby and my own thoughts was all I heard— an ambience of death and regret. The Man spoke again, and his voice shattered all other sound.

“Come with me,” he said. “Through the eye of the needle.”

“What?” But my heart squeezed faster.

“I will bring you back to life, but only if you are willing to leave everything behind.”

“I don’t have anything to leave behind, Sir.”

The Man smiled. “Yes, you do,” he said. “Your guilt, your sins, your death. You must leave them behind if you want to follow.”

My heart clenched, everything inside it hanging on for dear life. Their shadows burned me. “God you don’t know how much I want to,” I whispered. The Man smiled.

“I do know,” he answered. “Will you leave them behind?”

I breathed in deep, my heart wobbling. “I will, Sir.” The shadows loosened. “I’ll go with you.”

The man knelt and held out his hands. “Pour them out,” he said.

Everything within me screamed “no,” but— but then I looked at his open hands, and— and I trusted. I poured out my heart to him, telling him of all that I’d done, all that I’d wasted, all that I’d wished didn’t happen. And as I did, shadows fell from my heart into his hands, and they were swallowed up in beams of light.

Then the Man stood up, wearing a smile so deep and loving and joyful it cut me through to the bones. It hurt, but it was the good hurt. I felt lighter, taller, brighter. The Man held out his hand to me and said:

“Are you ready, son? Are you ready to go through the eye of the needle?”

“Yes, Sir,” I answered. “I’m ready.”

Okay, I hope that should work. XD God bless y’all! ;D